ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at the potential for politicisation in later-Stuart England, and shows that most of the issues which divided the parties at this time had roots which dug deep in society. The government's policies - especially in the areas of religion and foreign policy - impinged directly on the lives of a significant proportion of the population, with the result that people could not help but be politicised to some degree. Religion was the political issue which aroused the most passionate emotions amongst the population at large. Nevertheless, many of the other sources of conflict between the two parties under William and Anne reached beyond the walls of Westminster, and in their different ways had a significant impact on society. English society during the great rage of party under William and Anne divided primarily on religious grounds, with the Nonconformists siding overwhelmingly with the Whigs, and High Church Anglicans with the Tories.